A national bestseller, Dictionary of the Khazars was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year. Written in two versions, male and female (both available in Vintage International), which are identical save for seventeen crucial lines, Dictionary is the imaginary book of knowledge of the Khazars, a people who flourished somewhere beyond Transylvania between the seventh and ninth centuries. Eschewing conventional narrative and plot, this lexicon novel combines the dictionaries of the world's three major religions with entries that leap between past and future, featuring three unruly wise men, a book printed in poison ink, suicide by mirrors, a chimerical princess, a sect of priests who can infiltrate one's dreams, romances between the living and the dead, and much more.
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From Publishers Weekly
Available in slightly differing "male" and "female" editions, the narrative purports to be the historical record of the Khazars, a fictional Indo-European tribe that vanished in the 10th century. "Pavic is a 20th-century Scheherazade," acknowledged PW . "Readers who are intrigued by literary conundrums will enjoy entering this magical world with Pavic as their guide."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Library Journal
Christina Pribicevic-Zoric. LC 88-45262. $19.95. f Yugoslav writer Pavic assures us that the Khazars were a nomadic people who settled near the Black Sea in the 7th century A.D. "But their origins remain unknown and all traces of them have vanished." A thousand years later a Polish printer incorporated surviving knowledge of the Khazars into a dictionaryalmost all copies of which were burned by the Inquisition. Pavic's interlocking series of witty and fantastic tales purports to update that edition, but by now all "facts" about the forgotten nation are doubly conjectural. As if the truth weren't problematic enough already, Pavic has even produced his lexicon in "male" and "female" versions differing by only a few (highly significant!) words. This congeries will delight readers of Borges and Calvino, although libraries will need to buy both editions to satisfy them.Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
Pavic's Dictionary is without a shred of doubt the best, most beautiful and the most complex book I have ever read. It was written with an impecable style, but let me warn you right away: don't expect an ordinary fictional work. The Dictionary is a multilayered masterpiece, it talks about the same event and culture from three points of view. All different. All contradictory. All true. All false.
In the beginning, you'll wonder if he's normal; half way through it, you'll wonder if you're normal for believing him and in the end, you'll want to read it again, again and again. So far I have read it cover to cover eight times, and I don't even think that I understand it completely.
This wonderful showcase of dialectics is a definite must read!
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most amazing books you will ever read. It makes absolutely no sense at all, but it shows how style can be pleasant, how literature can still be music, and how fiction and history can be seen as different opinions on the same events.
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most amazing books you will ever read. It makes absolutely no sense at all, but it shows how style can be pleasant, how literature can still be music, and how fiction and history can be seen as different opinions of the same events.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the average reader
I picked this book up and thought it would be interesting. I like mythology and folklore. However, this was the best book to put me sleep. Read more
Published on Oct 9 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inventive, playful, but is there more to it?
Admittedly, it takes more than one reading to nail this book down, and I have read it only once. It is a very playful book, turning literature on its head. Read more
Published on Dec 18 2002 by Mao PIng-pong
4.0 out of 5 stars
A lexicon of poetry
This is a bizarre and beautiful book, and perhaps due to my limited attention span I found its value more in the poetry of its language than its attempts at being a novel. Read more
Published on May 22 2002 by "red_haired_dancing_girl"
3.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended for Those with ADD
Per the author's challenge to the average reader to discover his or her reading style within the confines of "the book," I would suggest that the "Dictionary of the Khazars" be... Read more
Published on Jan 31 2002 by K.A. Snead
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ku
Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars is a very odd book. It's written more like an encyclopaedia than a dictionary, and more like a book of mythology/folklore than an... Read more
Published on Oct 31 2001 by Shantell Powell
4.0 out of 5 stars
In the chameleon dreams of deepest bicycles, a tulip
Are you ready for this ? Do you want a novel with a plot, tangible characters, and the usual narrative style ? OK, forget this book. Read more
Published on Feb 22 2001 by Robert S. Newman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worthless plagiarism
As it seems to me, the decrepitude of Logos is by now glaringly evident ( except for fashion fans & addicted devourers of blase fiction quasinovelties ). Read more
Published on Aug 16 2000 by Mir Harven
5.0 out of 5 stars
Between total fantasy and magical realism
I saw this book in a store and saw that there were two editions. This intrigued me -- why "Male" & "Female". Read more
Published on Aug 1 2000 by J. Angus Macdonald
5.0 out of 5 stars
Between total fantasy and magical realism
I saw this book in a store and saw that there were two editions. This intrigued me -- why "Male" & "Female". Read more
Published on Aug 1 2000 by J. Angus Macdonald
5.0 out of 5 stars
Food of life!
One of the truly great books. Stands with 100 Years of Solitude as a masterwork. Better than (most) sex. Read more
Published on Jun 26 2000
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